Texas Is Becoming More Latino, So White Conservatives Are Making Sure They Don’t Vote

This is how those in power stay in power.

Texas, a state whose origin story is pretty much white supremacy fan fiction, will likely become majority Latino (read: Mexican-American) by 2020. That’s one presidential election away. That means that given the Latino community’s penchant for voting Democrat, Texas is as few as four years away from becoming a swing state. Let that fact sink in. I’ll wait.

That’s the upside. The bad news? Instead of adapting to the inevitable browning of Tejas (Oh, didn’t you hear? We agreed at the last Latino meeting to go back to the OG name), Republican politicians are doing everything in their power to prevent us from voting. That includes whack voter ID laws that have repeatedly been struck down because lol the U.S. Constitution. But despite justice getting in the way, Republicans have still been successful in making it really hard for Latinos and other minorities to register to vote. Proof: the video above from Vice. The news organization went down to Houston, Texas, to speak to Daniel Ybarra, an organizer trying to get as many Latinos registered. Spoiler alert: the state makes his job very difficult.

Unfortunately for the Tejanos among you, it’s too late to register to vote if you haven’t done so already (the deadline was October 11). But for those of you living elsewhere, you might still have time. New Yorkers (October 14), Floridians (October 18), and Californians (October 24), get registered. Your vote does matter.